Cougars fall short in 67-59 loss to No. 13 Utah

PULLMAN – First-year Washington State coach Ernie Kent spoke of “the process” after taking the WSU job last spring, suggesting a couple years spent taking lumps were likely before the Cougars became a postseason-caliber team.

Sort of like the six- and 15-win seasons Utah suffered through under Larry Krystkowiak before ascending to legitimate title contender.

Well, the Cougars had to pay their dues this season, although perhaps fewer than expected, losing games they would surely like another shot at against nonconference opponents.

Those losses mean the Cougars are likely out of the running for an NIT bid, although a signature win would have likely locked up an invitation to the CBI.

But as close as the Cougars came to knocking off a premier team in Thursday’s 67-59 loss to No. 13 Utah, and with the contributions they’re getting from previously forgotten players throughout their roster, the process is undoubtedly ahead of schedule.

“I think the progress we’ve had this year is actually pretty amazing but why be satisfied with that?” Kent asked after the game. “Why not go beat the 13th-ranked team in the country? Why not go beat Colorado, why not go win the tournament? There’s still more out there and I keep challenging this team to not be satisfied.”

The fans left angry on Thursday due to perceived injustices by the officials and the lost opportunity to revel in what would have been the the biggest win in Beasley Coliseum in years.

But the truth is the better team simply won, as expected. The gap just might not be as wide as was believed. Kent showed some postgame frustration himself at the paltry attendance, announced at 2,690, but in reality was far lower.

“I thought the energy in the building was not where I thought it was going to be with the 13th-ranked team coming in here and seniors on their two last games,” Kent said. “I thought they deserved a lot better.”

WSU’s post offense was as good as it’s been all season and the Cougars forced a pair of shot-clock violations with surprisingly tough defense.

The Cougars held Utah to 29 percent shooting in the first half and the teams were tied at 23 at halftime.

But the Utes, ninth in the country in field-goal percentage, shoot too well to slump so badly for an entire game. Utah shot 55 percent in the second half and made 8 of 12 3-point attempts despite generally tight defense from the Cougars.

“They made some big, big shots and that was the difference in the game, really,” Kent said.

The Utes and No. 5 Arizona have been far above the rest of the conference this season and while those two teams have an average victory margin of around 16 points per game, no other Pac-12 team’s victory margin is higher than 7.1.

Last week the Utes lost a heated matchup with the Wildcats that all but ended their shot at a conference championship, and on Thursday it didn’t look like they particularly cared to fight for second place until there were about nine minutes left in the game.

Trailing 48-41, Utah went on a 12-2 run over a 3:48 span to take a 53-50 lead. Josh Hawkinson answered for the Cougars, but Jordan Loveridge hit a difficult fade-away jump shot to maintain Utah’s cushion.

Delon Wright, a favorite to be named the conference’s Player of the Year on Monday, scored 18 points and added eight rebounds and eight assists while making four of his six shot attempts.

Recently, Kent and Jordan Railey have lamented that the fifth-year senior center doesn’t have one more year to play in the new WSU program given his intermittent dunks and scoring outbursts that suggest he’s a player on the cusp of having the game become a whole lot easier.

He showed why again on Thursday, for 20 minutes, scoring all 12 of his points before halftime. In the second half Railey only played three minutes because of foul trouble and because Utah went with a small lineup due to the ineffectiveness of freshman center Jakob Poeltl, who committed four fouls and attempted zero shots.

“I think my stupid fouls kind of hurt us,” Railey said. “I don’t think they had any answer for me or Josh in the post and I have to play smarter. As far as what they did, I don’t think they did anything different. At the end of the day they hit some tough shots.”